Electrification of the Car Industry

Regrettably, more than a few EV startup companies today are manufacturing dreams not cars. Many provide E-Vehicle Vaporware that disappears in the slightest breeze. The term under-delivered has become itself an understatement. Working the crowds like barkers at a carnival, many EV startups feel, sadly, that issuing an endless flow of electrifying press releases is all that is necessary to somehow make them into bona fide collaborators in electric car commerce.

Green vehicle technology has been the dominating theme at nearly every auto show for the past ten years, but misinformation far surpasses actual electric car production. With postponements galore and gibberish aplenty, even from the "Big Five" – General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda and Chrysler – it has become painfully obvious that the electric car is for now problematic to manufacture, to say the least. Companies new to the industry most often find themselves in way over their heads.

Major impasses facing electric vehicle manufacturers, in particular independent startup electric car companies, include pioneering the creation of totally unique automotive configurations, expensive batteries, innovative electric motors, and countless other technological complexities. There are also government regulatory interferences as well as the need to raise large sums of capital. Finally, these still unproven electric cars must be manufactured from the ground up and then distributed to the calloused public.

Today's autonomous electric car companies face hurdles that even the great Henry Ford himself could have scarcely visualized.

Still, the automotive industry is on the threshold of a transformation. Throughout the past decade alone, numerous well-founded secondary electric automotive startup companies have materialized and joined the electric car phenomenon, doing their best to electrify the automotive industry. Those who were ingenious enough to see the future knew it was time to take the plunge. It was time for change. It was time to build some electric cars.

One startup EV company that is managing to find its direction is Tesla. Tesla is located in Palo Alto, California – the hills where some of the world's largest technology corporations reside. It is a minuscule automotive manufacturer compared to the "Big Five" and still, for the most part, unprofitable.

Yet, in reality, this electric vehicle startup company may have actually jump-started or at least reignited the EV revolution. Tesla, a company whose car production only began in 2008, has already delivered approximately 2,000 units of their Tesla Roadster. With the EV revolution in its infancy stage, even baby steps like these are steps in the right direction.

Tesla is a public company and many of its shareholders have high hopes that it will be the next Apple. Much like Apple did for its products, Tesla has geared its cars toward individuals both capable and ready to spend big money for a trendy and innovative vehicle.

The U.S. government is at least one party that appears to have seen something beautiful glowing within the heart of Tesla Motors. The government has seen fit to invest $465 million of our money in low or no interest loans to Tesla for the construction of plants to build their EVs.

Tesla's battery and drive train technology is so exceptional that Daimler selected Tesla to supply them with battery packs and chargers for the Smart ForTwo ED. Daimler likes Tesla Motors so much that they have purchased an equity stake of nearly ten percent in the company.

One thing is for certain: Vehicle electrification and the infrastructure required for the electric vehicles themselves will not only be a very long and bumpy road, the cost of the tolls lining that road will be somewhere beyond expensive. Many of the early startups won't survive. Those who succeed, however, will grow strong and prosperous. Some may be purchased by one of the "Big Five" – or even perhaps an unfamiliar Chinese or Indian company.

Other unproductive startups will simply take their money and run. Nevertheless, the resilience demonstrated by this handful of diminutive startups, whether winners or losers, is the bread and butter of the drive toward establishing the eventual electrification of the world's automotive industry.